A constitutional monarchy in the British Commonwealth, the small island country of Barbados is located in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. There is a beautiful web page about tobacco, sugar, and rum -- new tastes and new trades -- on this Smithsonian page, where the patterns for copper Barbados pennies and half pennies are presented and explained. Slavery, sea power, and agriculture were the engine that drove the sugar trade, and symbols of this engine appear on these old coins.

The I SERVE slave portrait appears on the penny and half penny, as does the Neptune and chariot design. Some pennys have a pineapple design instead of the Neptune design.

All these coins are fascinating, and all are quite valuable when in good condition. The lists below present a summary of approximate catalog values for these coins. As always on CoinQuest, you must apply the criteria presented on our Important Terminology page to convert these catalog values to actual buy and sell values. The coin in our main picture (courtesy of the Smithsonian) is in excellent condition and therefore very valuable. The secondary picture with the pineapple shows a coin with a stain. Stains and similar damage always lowers value of collectible coins. However:

If you have one of these coins, and if your coin is in good condition, try to find a coin dealer or knowledgeable collector in your local area. You can use the yellow pages and the Internet to locate dealers, and collectors often form coin clubs that are usually easy to find as well.

A knowledgeable numismatist (coin collector) will be able to discern subtle variations in these coins that can affect value significantly. For instance, there are re-struck proof coins that can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.